Tag Archives: Nicole Kidman

Aquaman 2

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Vampire Owl: I have heard news about an aqua vampire.

Vampire Bat: I am pretty sure that Aquaman is no vampire.

Vampire Owl: He could be the first vampire out of water.

Vampire Bat: When have we ever been fans of water?

Vampire Owl: Well, there is always a first time for everything.

Vampire Bat: Are you imagining an underwater kingdom for vampires?

Vampire Owl: I don’t see why not. There is less human interference there.

Vampire Bat: So, you choose tranquility over everything else.

Vampire Owl: I choose a life without human nonsense.

Vampire Bat: I don’t see why we should not opt for the same.

[Gets a vancho cake and three cups of Munnar tea].

What is the movie about? :: Arthur Curry a.k.a. Aquaman (Jason Momoa) has gone through his share of adventures, and after marrying Mera (Amber Heard), had a child and is living his life between land and sea, not being fixed at one space. He has not stayed away from his responsibilities as the King of Atlantis though, but his attempt to unite the people of land and seas is ruined due to the intervention by elders of the underwater world. Everything seems to be going normal for Atlantis, until David Kean (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) decides to have his vengeance with another attempt at the life of Aquaman. He wishes to have the whole family of Aquaman destroyed along with whatever he finds precious in return for the life of his father. He works with Dr. Stephen Shin (Randall Park) who wishes to prove to the outside world that Atlantis in not a myth. In the search for Atlantean artefacts, they come across a black trident which possesses David, as it offers him the strength to destroy Arthur and maybe do even better by spreading devastation in Atlantis.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: Soon, David attacks Atlantis and steals a rare mineral called orichalcum which he uses to power some ancient machines which he had unearthed while finding the black trident. The attack leaves Amber Heard seriously injured and Atlantis defenses destroyed like never before. As orichalcum which emits greenhouse gases has raised planetary temperatures and caused extreme weather all around the globe, he decides to stop a global disaster and meltdown from happening. For the same, he decides to take the help of his brother Orm Marius (Patrick Wilson), even though almost everyone warns him against taking such a step as Orm is not be trusted. But he chooses to go with his instincts, and manages to break out Orm from his prison in the middle of a desert, thus threatening the treaty between different kingdoms of ocean. Orm is not really happy about what has happened to him, and neither is he happy about what has happened to Atlantis with its defenses breached and many citizens dead. Their mother Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) still hopes that they can work together to save the world.

The defence of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom :: In a time when world has gone to the brainless mass masala fans, our movie here has managed to maintain a fine plot and a certain amount of class with its use of heroes. The movie automatically becomes the best choice for Christmas to watch with family including children and in that fine 3D format – the visual effects are nothing less than stunning with deep blue sea all around. The world underwater has been created nicely, and there is no room left there for complaining, with another breath-taking world created on an island. The creatures underwater continue to be a sight of beautiful variety and so are the colours of flora and fauna that creates even better visuals. You see the 3D on the screen nicely contributing to the ocean coming to you better than ever. The message about the need to save multiple worlds from the dangers of global warming and its extensions is also present there. The environmental message in a superhero is often lost in its path, like overpowered nonsensical overpowered creatures of mass destruction like Captain Marvel, but not when a determined underwater king is in control.

Positives and negatives :: The first movie was surely better than this one, as it had the Aquaman-Mera combination that was a joy to watch, with some of the most innovative action sequences, making the best out of available resources. The film remains light-hearted, and some of the humour is really nice, even though there could have been more. The action sequences keep catching our attention, even though the first movie had the more classic versions which would be remembered for longer. The background music makes some good impact, but not at all times. Ideas of brotherhood and family are asserted well throughout the movie along with the need to save the world from the powerful evil which comes in many forms. It also maintains the respect for divergence unlike Black Panther which has been disrespectful to the world outside Wakanda with a racist and bourgeoise nature. A better use of some of the characters would have served the movie better, but even with all the negativity around, it is to be noted that DC universe is now doing better than Marvel which has too many of dumb young characters for anybody’s liking – as it seems, most of them might not even make it to a number of theatres in this part of the world.

The performers of the soul :: Jason Momoa does what he did earlier, and asserts his role as the hero underwater, diverging from the usual superheroes above the ground. He continues to prove as the right choice for the role. Patrick Wilson provides some fine support here, and his combination scenes with the hero keeps us further interested. Out of The Conjuring and Insidious, he manages the other big role nicely. Amber Heard remains here as Mera, and she continues to have our attention, and she would remain the perfect queen of this world. She also excels in the action sequences, with her presence underwater being a thing of joy to watch. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II remains a strong villain as he continues the fine form from previous movie, and this is surely not the end of the road for such pure villainy. Nicole Kidman also becomes the one evergreen underwater queen that we are sure to remember for long, and she is another person who seems to be not aging at all these days. Jani Zhao as Stingray has a very notable job, while Randall Park is one full human character that is noted more than the rest. Temuera Morrison continues that particular father role with ease.

How it finishes :: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom keeps its level high in comparison to the so called action thrillers from Bollywood and other industries, as a certain amount of class can always be seen along with the top quality graphics making a true spectacle. It is unlike the artificial spectacles that we see with so called superstars – those stars should not be endorsing toxic masculinity and illegal immigration like they are doing now. The trouble between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp seemed to have affected the film despite the high entertainment value. The number of shows for the movie is less, as people are not that much into quality superhero stuff these days. This movie should have had more screens, and those theatres which do not have at least one show of this movie feels pre-historic in nature. There was a time when we could enjoy superhero movies in fully-packed theatres, but that is not the case now. Even Marvel has struggled to get its audience, and in that case, the situation of DC comes as no surprise. Maybe, the corona virus itself will make a comeback again, and until then, let us enjoy our favourite superheroes without fail, and the Aquaman sequel is surely worth it.

Release date: 22nd December 2023
Running time: 124 minutes
Directed by: James Wan
Starring: Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Randall Park, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison, Martin Short, Nicole Kidman

<<< Click here to go to the previous review.

<<< Click here to go to the previous English film review.

<<< Click here to go to the previous full superhero film review.

<<< Click here to go to the previous DC superhero film review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Aquaman

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What is the movie about? :: A lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry (Temuera Morrison) comes up against Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), who is the princess of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis which had sunk under the Atlantic Ocean on one eventful day of ambition and hubris. He saves the injured princess and they fall in love. The unexpected sequence of events lead to the birth of Arthur Curry (Jason Mamoa) who shows the ability to communicate with marine lifeforms, and it is only one of his special skills. With the attack of the troops of Atlantis threatening her family’s life, she decides to go back to the city, hoping to come back on another day when the situation gets better. An Atlantean Nuidis Vulko (Willem Dafoe) is assigned to train Arthur as he grows up.

So, what happens with the events to follow? :: Back to the events after the incidents of Justice League, the invasion of Steppenwolf had made Arthur further part of saving the world as Aquaman, a name with which he has been referred to by the media. He comes up against the pirate David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen) and his team while the group was trying to hijack a nuclear submarine – Arthur ends up defeating them, and leaves David’s father dead in the process, for which the young pirate wants revenge. Meanwhile, Orm (Patrick Wilson), Arthur’s younger half-brother and Atlantis’ king wants to begin a war against the people on the surface, as revenge against polluting ocean and causing the death of many creatures of the seas. Using an attack by David as the immediate cause, he seeks the support of the rest of the underwater kingdoms to go on war.

And what else is to follow here? :: He easily gets the support of Nereus (Dolph Lundgren), another king under the sea, and looks forward for more. The daughter of Nereus, Mera (Amber Heard) supports Arthur to become the king as the rightful heir to the crown. But at the same time, Orm wishes to get rid of Arthur, who is the first-born of the queen and therefore has a claim to the throne of Atlantis. Despite Orm sending huge tidal waves all around the world, the surface world remains ignorant about what lies beneath. Mera convinces Arthur to try and save both worlds and he agrees. But the fact remains that Arthur doesn’t have much of a chance against the power that Orm holds on his way to becoming the Ocean Master. But there might be one chance – the question remains if he can take it.

The defence of Aquaman :: One can appreciate Aquaman for its great fight sequences and stunning visuals more than anything else. It becomes a spectacle easily with these, and we just love to keep watching without taking eyes away at any moment. The visuals under the sea has all those fights happening underwater too. We have so many things to add to this visual extravaganza. Atlantis itself is a beautiful sight, and we see that even the people and their costumes are nice. There is a lot of world detail around here. The locations on the surface are also nicely chosen. The fight scene in Sicily is glorious, and the final combat is great to watch. There is also the allusion to the tale of the legendary British king Arthur, and the other reminder is related to Thor: Ragnarok which had the hero from Norse mythology fighting his sibling for control over the kingdom. Well, it even has some horror with its marine creatures – that reminds you who the director is.

Positives and negatives :: There is nothing special being added to the story, and there are no twists coming your way. The similarities to Thor: Ragnarok are many, with not just the sibling battle, but also regarding the early defeat, loss of weapon and arena battle, this time in the absence of the Incredible Hulk. But we see the cast, and most of the problems vanish with the beautiful visuals – Amber Heard does what Natalie Portman couldn’t do in Thor, as the action star on the lines of Kate Beckinsale of Underworld and Mila Jovovich of Resident Evil, as she does the same thing better than ever. A journey through the underwater world, and witnessing a city with so much detail can negate the negatives easily enough. There is some nice humour, and the emotions stay strong for most of the time too. It hasn’t been that easy going for DC, even though Suicide Squad was a movie I enjoyed a lot, personally. Aquaman makes it easy for DC to go forward now.

The performers of the soul :: Jason Momoa remains strong in this one, and unlike that Justice League role, this time, he brings more charm. He nicely gets into the mix of Justice League with this one, and it will be interesting to see how everything works out with another movie with a team of superheroes trying to match the Avengers in another universe. Amber Heard is amazingly good as the warrior princess from underwater. We remember her for her presence in the thrilling horror movies like All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, The Ward and The Stepfather as well as the action thrillers like And Soon the Darkness, 3 Days to Kill and Drive Angry. This one will be the new way to identify her, as a character which brings the best. She is perfectly suited for action sequences other than being remembered as a scream queen, and it is something that she seems to reiterate here. Patrick Wilson from Insidious & The Conjuring fame becomes an extremely effective villain too. Nicole Kidman has some fine moments too.

How it finishes :: Aquaman might be that one movie which could rise its level to catch up with Marvel, and after Wonder Woman, we have one another movie which lifts the universe again, with hope for even more. On the lines of Thor and Norse mythology, DC has its Greek mythology and elements including Atlantis about which we have read about in Plato’s Republic right in place. The myth and the visuals here can be considered to be even ahead of Wonder Woman, even though the island its inhabitants had their own charm too – nothing matches some nicely created underwater visual splendour though. With the second part of Avengers: Infinity War and Captain Marvel to do the job for Marvel, DC has surely made its move in a nice way, the director of Insidious and The Conjuring, James Wan has made a point once again. Well, it is surprising that Aquaman about whom not many people know – the lesser known superhero now has a movie better than each and every better known superhero of Justice League.

Release date: 14th December 2018 (India); 21st December 2018 (USA)
Running time: 143 minutes
Directed by: James Wan
Starring: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Nicole Kidman, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen, Graham McTavish, Temuera, Ludi Lin, Randall, Djimon Hounsou, Natalia Safran, Sophia Forrest

<— Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Stoker

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stokerr

The legend of Stoker :: The first idea image that comes to one’s mind with the name “Stoker” is that of a vampire, if not exactly that of the primary antagonist of a 1897 Gothic horror novel. Thanks to Bram Stoker, the legend of Dracula has been something that continues to be synonymous with vampirism itself. But, there is nothing directly related to Bram Stoker here, and lets not make any guesses about it being something about the life of the creator of the world’s most well-known vampire (one of the few English writers whose name I have known since childhood). Stoker gives you no blood sucker, and even when there are murders, there is no such behaviour of not wasting the blood. The Vampire Bat has been historically against wastage of blood, and is certain to have been sad about his own idea about this movie being wrong, but that feeling never stood strong till the end of the movie. Stoker was never supposed to be about vampires, and it was not meant to be the usual horror movie; it had to be different.

What is it about? :: India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) is not going through a good period of time after her father Richard (Dermot Mulroney) dies in a car accident. Her mentally unstable mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman) and India doesn’t seem to get along well. Richard’s brother Charlie (Matthew Goode) comes to the scene at that time, and keeps talking about his life which was mostly spent traveling all around the world. His stay at the house turns out to be longer than expected, and even as Evelyn likes that, India is mostly indifferent to his presence and on some occasions, rather not happy with his existence. She continues to keep away from him despite the fact that he seems to be trying quite hard to be very friendly with her. But as almost everyone who has an argument with Charlie disappears, India begins to feel that there is more to him than what meets the eye. Later, she even finds one of the dead bodies in the freezer. But she won’t be able to tell that to her mother who seems to have developed some intense feelings for his charms.

The defence of Stoker :: The movie successfully brings that creepy environment into play, with a huge house and its surrounding which seem to have more secrets than any normal person can endure, but that would eventually be proved wrong by the two characters, the introvert niece and her uncle whose existence was never known as his presence is more mysterious than the absence. The association of big houses with horror comes as no surprise, as everybody needs room to store some horrible secrets; the movies in most of the languages has the same, and Stoker has used that very well. There are lots of surprises in store too, especially related to the new member of the family, and the youngest member of the same who always had it in her to bring that shock element for which we are made to wait. Is that all about horror? No, it is mostly about horror and rest is about fantasy which follows horror in such a way that both becomes beautifully intertwined. The visuals are so nicely done so that the strange, creepy atmosphere is never out of our mind, even with nothing vicious being tried.

The claws of flaw :: Stoker can disappoint the usual horror lover depending on what he or she is looking for. It doesn’t have anything supernatural or serial killers who comes out of nowhere to create a pool of blood, even as this one does have enough blood and gruesome murders. There are no weird faces coming out of the dark making strange noises and trying to take advantage of that shocking side. This doesn’t go through that path set by Insidious and Sinister, the former needing no introduction and the latter having the most read horror movie review on my blog even as it was written almost an year after it was released, in the honorary movies list. The movie has that uniqueness which might make some audience disinterested. There is also some part of the movie where it might seem that nothing really happens, but that is not really that usual drag. The movie could have still used a little more of the direct horror, and there it might have lost a few fans too. It is also so much mixed in its genre that it can trouble fans of many genres. The grief and feelings in this movie can be highly subjective for the viewers too.

Performers of the soul :: This one comes from the South Korean director of the much admired Oldboy which was voted as one of the best Asian movies, and also Thirst which seems to have also got a similar reception – so that expectations were going to be high and I would say that this one delivers nicely, at least for me. Matthew Goode’s performance comes as real stunner in this one, as he exhibits both sides of being terrifying as well as charming with so much brilliance. Nicole Kidman also does nice with what might be the best someone can give for such a character. The best part of the movie should be Mia Wasikowska though. I mostly remember her from Alice in Wonderland in which she was so good, and she was the best Jane Eyre that most of us had ever known. Here, she takes that into another level as she is presented with a character who might be one of the strangest girls ever. She plays no Carrie, but even this character is so gifted in many ways along with being disturbed that she keeps us with her even as not completely on her side, and there comes the subjectivity of the viewers into play.

Soul exploration :: This is the first time that I have noticed Mia Wasikowska with black hair, and as that seems to suit her so well, it adds to the soul too. Eighteen year old girl and never really smiling in the movie – now that is more than just interesting for a Vampire Bat’s soul. Caught between her innocence and awareness, India doesn’t become like the others; she chooses to be different. But what is to follow when she decides to follow her instincts rather than her innocence? She is a lot like her uncle, and that is something that is proved again and again in the movie. They both have a lot in common, and India always has that invitation into that dark world which she can resist only with her best attempts. But her world has already shattered, and any resistance that she can produce would rather become an illusion which won’t help her a bit. She has always had the dark side with all its strength, and it is only herself that keeps her back, and there will always be a revelation which can turn the whole world upside down.

How it finishes :: Stoker successfully keeps the audience in the movie and doesn’t throw away its logic, even when it slows down in pace, an achievement which not many horror movies can boast about. You can say that with most of the shots of the movie. Stoker has style and it has substance; to add to it, this is a thriller and horror movie with the elements of drama, not something which is easy to achieve. “Don’t disturb the family” is a nice tagline for the movie too, as we do come to know what happens when even the youngest member of the family is disturbed – not a good sign for anyone planning to do the same. You got to love the way they look in the poster too, especially Mia Wasikowska; Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows shall approve it with an A+. Watch this one as a horror movie, a thriller, a coming-of-age story, a slasher flick, a tale of revenge and even as a strange romantic tragedy. Stoker might be strange to a number of people belonging to the normal audience category, but it has so much in it which makes it a force to be reckoned with.

Release date: 1st March 2013
Running time: 99 minutes
Directed by: Park Chan-wook
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode, Nicole Kidman, Dermot Mulroney, Jacki Weaver, Lucas Till, Alden Ehrenreich, Phyllis Somerville, Ralph Brown, Judith Godrèche

stoker copy

@ Cemetery Watch
✠The Vampire Bat.